"A Committee of Correspondence"

06 January 2015

The Pentagon is deceiving itself again about IS

"For the first time since the Islamic State group formally announced its desire to conquer Saudi Arabia last month, government officials said terrorist elements had launched an attack on the Saudi border with Iraq. Four militants, one wearing a suicide vest, attacked a border fortification Monday, killing three Saudi border guards.

The militants' official media wing for Iraq’s Anbar province published a photo essay taking responsibility for the attack, which is the closest ISIS has come to breaching the coveted Saudi Arabian border since it declared the existence of a caliphate in June. The suicide attack signals a change in the group’s strategy to conquer the kingdom. It was both the first direct attack on Saudi armed forces and the first documented attempt by the militant group to infiltrate the country. Despite the government's past efforts to quell extremism, Saudi Arabia has become increasing vulnerable to ISIS advances." ibtimes

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Meanwhile .... Rear Admiral John Kirby, the DoD press spokesman is assuring the world that the assistance efforts of the US & friends have stopped the rot in Iraq and Syria and that IS has lost the initiative to us. I doubt it. It seems more likely to me that what damage we have done to IS with air attacks is not decisive.

What I hear from within DoD and CIA is that the temptation to get rid of independent thinkers among the analysts and hire yes men (and women) in their stead has prevailed so that the decision makers are once again being told what they want to hear by members of the time serving and careerist members of the boot licking class.

Based on the much welcomed assesments of such people the US is preparing to deliver another 170 odd Abrams tanks, masses of armored Humvees, a lot of MRAPS and a mountain of small arms. IMO, IS will welcome the renewed supply of equipment.

Saudi Arabia is a big fat roasted turkey waiting for the diners to arrive. The country is rotten with IS sympathisers. My. My. pl

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PL,

The King is thought to be near death - do you think the transition following his death will be smooth? I know just enough about SA to be dangerous, but SA seems to be an inherently unstable construct; the house of Saud probably cannot keep control forever...

With respect to IS I think the utilization of airpower in indirect support to the various players (Kurds and ISF mainly) stymied IS operational progress but will not be sufficient to roll IS back. To decisively defeat IS will likely require a concerted and coordinated effort among the anti-IS players including Iran, Syria and the US - a coalition which isn't likely anytime soon.

Col. Lang, I'm afraid you are right. I read a self deluding piece a week ago about mortar attacks on Al - Adsa airbase in Iraq but decided not to mention it on SST.

The Pollyannas in Washington won't believe the seriousness of the IS situation until it's too late. The bit that got my goat is reproduced below; How does "Jessica Lewis McFate", despite her military career, know that the attacks on Al Adsa are not a prelude to an overwhelming attack, given IS ability to rapidly assemble their forces? Why are we so sure it will merely be bypassed?

"But Jessica Lewis McFate, an analyst with the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, said militants appeared to be focusing their efforts on ensuring Iraqi forces cannot use the base to block their attempts to capture other, more strategic parts of Anbar.

Al-Asad lies between areas under Islamic State control, into which the group will eventually have to press if it will be able to conquer the province. Militants are still fighting for Ramadi, another important city. Iraqi forces have so far been able to defend other strategic areas, such as the Haditha dam.

The militants’ goal is “not necessarily to try to overrun the base, but to try to pin forces in that fight,” Lewis McFate said.

A U.S. defense official said artillery or rocket attacks on al-Asad had been “very sporadic and ineffective.” U.S. and Iraqi officials said many landed outside the base."

I can't feel too much sympathy for Saudi Arabia. They more or less open Pandora's box with their embrace of the extremist Wahhabism version of Islam (think fundamentalist Christians). Indonesia has more Muslims than any country with India having the second largest. In both countries Muslims seem to get along with the world. In my opinion, fundamentalist Saudi Arabia needs a modern Reformation.

Petty border attacks will ramp up in order to draw more SA forces to the border thus weakening the centers of the country and straining the SA forces logistics & moral.
The 'spectacle' attack will come with the Hajj. IS should be able to infiltrate enough forces during the migration of hundreds of thousands of the faithful, to stage an attack on the Ka'ba or the mosque of the prophet and temporarily overrun the security forces.
Deaths will be high but for the believers it is hard to beat a death on the Hajj.

The media/propaganda coup will be worth the loss of seasoned fighters.
The blow to the house of Saud as guardians of the holy sites will be crippling, they will over-react and escalate their demise.
Recruitment to IS will soar.

The collateral deaths of innocent pilgrims will not affect the arab public, for there is always death associated with the Hajj through food poisoning, stampedes, catastrophic accidents, intra tribal fighting etc...

Lets hope this scenario doesn't play out.

General Question regarding Oil prices. How much of the market collapse has to do with IS selling as much of the oil it controls at cut-rate prices since it cannot sell the oil on the open market?

As to Saudi Arabia isn't it the ultra-conservative Wahhabbi sect that is both the ideology of the Kingdom's true backers and also the same ideology at the heart of IS? There must be many, many potential (and actual) IS supporters in Saudi Arabia.

I was going to comment on the logistics problem that ISIS faced with keeping Abrams tanks running. I understand that turbine engines are pretty reliable, but when they break, you're not going to fix them with shade tree tree mechanics and jury rigged/salvaged parts (or won't stay fixed for long). I didn't realize there were 1500 to 1800 (wikipedia) of them in Iraq, Egypt, Kuwait, and SA, some or all with spares. It's still a logistics problem, but it puts it into the purchasing and transportation realm, not manufacturing. I also learned that there are piston engine conversions in the works, or already existing. Being able to use a truck, heavy equipment, marine or large generator engine to power one is a great idea, but perhaps not so good for us in this situation.

Assuming that the attack on Charlie Hebdo was an IS phenomenon, it appears that contrary to Admiral Kirby's assertion IS has not lost the initiative. The battlefield use of force is, after all, only one aspect of warfare. pl

One would expect an ISIS adherent to consider their own beliefs not as extremist, but to be consistent with the Koran and the example of the Prophet and the others who have beliefs more moderate in Western eyes to have fallen away from the true faith. Many of the actions of ISIS viewed in the West as barbarism such as beheadings and forced conversions are wholly consistent with traditional Sunni beliefs.

ISIS is their reformation. Purification of Wahhabism by the allegedly corrupt and hypocritical Saudi Family is one of the central ISIS goals.

There is no necessity that a religious reformation move toward more liberal ideas. ISIS is a reformation that rejects modernism with a vengeance.

There is no intellectual basis for challenging ISIS practices within Sunni Islam; there is nothing that they are doing that is against Islamic Tradition or Practice.

That is why there is deafening silence from Sunni Doctors of Religion when it comes to ISIS. They cannot condemn their own religion.

And precisely for the same reason, ISIS, like a contagious disease, can infect Sunni Indian Muslims and Indonesians as well - in my opinion.

The program that ISIS is carrying out in Mosul, for example, destroying the ancient mosques and mausoleums and churches of that city is identical to what Saudi Arabian government has been doing since 1950s - committing outrageous crimes against Muslim History and Muslim Memory.

The treatment of the Yazidis is qualitatively no different than what was done in the former Kafirstan - present Nouristan - in Afghanistan in 1890s.

The only Doctors of Religion that have condemned ISIS claiming the legitimacy to do so based on their knowledge of Islam have been the Shia Doctors of Religion in Iran; some even wrote to the Pope, urging cooperation against extremism.

Euro-Americans historians posit Reformation as a positive thing in their history. One could argue that the various protestant sects and their rebellion against the Church were used and manipulated by the European rulers to severely limit the political power of the Papal States and - to at the same time - destroy the Holy Roman Empire.

Once those tasks were accomplished, the new states made sure that the protestant sects were tightly controlled and supervised by the now secular governments; there was not going to be a repeat of Luther's 92-point Thesis but this time directed against the secular state.

With all due respect...I've question who IS really is on your forum before. Last month Netanyahu threatened France if the voted to recognize Palestine. False flag terrorism us real and I don't think a mistake was made when this group attacked this left wing group. Had they attacked right wingers aligned with Bibi, yeah.

In one of the videos, the shooter went back to kill what I assumed was an injured cop on the street. He yelled out in English, "Bullshit," but on second and third time listening, I thought I heard, "This is bullshit." And there was no French accent. Je sais.

I don't know doodlysquat about tanks pe se, or Abrams tanks in particular, but based simply on general knowledge I would assume that the gas turbine engines need some sophisticated, periodic routine maintenance. Access to the underlying training required would be an issue as well.

SANA, Yemen — At least 23 people were killed in Yemen on Wednesday when a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a cultural center in the southern city of Ibb, where hundreds of people were commemorating the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday, according to a witness and officials.